10 more bodies found in Wash. mudslide

Searchers found 10 more bodies Tuesday in the debris of a massive landslide in Washington state, officials said, raising the death toll from the disaster to at least 24.

Snohomish County District 21 Fire Chief Travis Hots announced the fatalities after residents from the nearby logging town of Darrington spent the day helping rescue crews scour the muck for any sign of survivors.

The grim finds came three days after a rain-soaked hillside collapsed over a swath of land, a roadway and a river about 55 miles north of Seattle.

Searchers had said they expected to find more bodies in the debris field, which covered 49 structures. Authorities believe at least 25 of them were full-time residences.

The disaster ranks as one of the deadliest U.S. landslides since 10 people died when falling earth engulfed homes in the coastal community of La Conchita, Calif., in 2005.

Officials in the Washington state landslide have been working off a list of 176 people who remain unaccounted for, but authorities said they hope that number will decline, as some may have been double-counted or could be elsewhere and slow to alert family and officials of their whereabouts.

"I believe in miracles, and I believe people can survive these events," John Pennington, Snohomish County's director of emergency management, told reporters.

But after three days, the operation was shifting from a rescue operation to a recovery mission, officials said. Rescuers had failed to locate any more people alive in the rubble by early Tuesday.

Earlier in the day Hots said authorities were also turning back many volunteer searchers due to unstable ground conditions and fears of another landslide that could sweep away people searching the mud and debris.

"The last thing that we want to have happen is people showing up in their cars and sneaking up on the pile, and they're up there working independently on their own," he said.

Wire services